The Internet of Things (IoT) wasted no time spreading across the world and connecting a huge number of individuals. Apart from, we have seen almost every major industry put lots of resources into IoT, and foremost industries are rapidly moving to implement IoT solutions that drive the primary concern. Despite the huge gains in connectivity, the truth is, 2018 will be more of a steady growth period for the IoT. Using IoT, successful organizations will create a self-learning environment.

These five innovations will be the top IoT trends in 2018 and could be an essence of the world yet to come.

IoT future shaped by wearables

While 1 out of every 3 smartphone users trusts they will have at least 5 wearables by 2020. So, high demand towards wearable devices such as smartwatch, health & fitness band etc. In this manner, a setback in wearable adoption may delay the overall adoption of the IoT among consumers.

Roll out voice-based services to consumers

Google Assistant, Google Virtual Assistant that lives on devices like smart speakers and gaining enormous fame. An ever-increasing number of devices will open marketers’ eyes to better approaches for interacting with customers. Industries like financial and some other businesses that request authentication for much else, besides a simple task, will slack. The complexity, broadness and quality of voice-based services will grow in 2018 with accessible services.

Security: Blockchain

Security is still the weak link in the internet of things, so security remains a prime challenge for IoT. Blockchain will play a vital role in improving security for financial transactions in 2018. Watson IoT Blockchain enables devices to participate in Blockchain transactions as a trusted party. IoT and Blockchain empower more transactions overall because they eliminate centralization.

Big Data, Machine learning and AI

The amount of processed data will grow, and due to more number of smart devices, we will use IoT much more than we do now. So, we should work with Big Data in order to consider assets that would empower us to process and analyse problems accurately. Here, Machine Learning is the most demonstrated AI innovation that can process data based on predictive analytics, without the need of manual programming and activate real-time tasks in the IoT channel.

Connected devices will double

In 2018, Internet of Things will have considerably more interconnected devices, like a digital nervous system with interfacing devices together and be exchanging data. It is not only laptops and mobile phones also there will be more smart devices that we use daily, like smart doors, smart jar, smart locks, smart fork and more. The number of connected devices grew exponentially from 4.9 million in 2015 to 6.1 billion in 2016. It is expected to 46 billion by 2021.

Mariyam B Hasnain specializes in listening and putting things in words and in conservative grammar if you will. Her career spans over 5+ years of professional experience in medical transcription industry, from being a life science graduate to a medical language specialist. After devoting 5 years in transcribing and editing patients' reports, now she enjoys the freedom of working in different dimensions. Creative copy writing, content writing, blogging, and transcription is her forte. She is also an internet technology enthusiast and a big fan of WordPress and the Open Source Movement.